Editorial: Benghazi hearing revealed new facts

The Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, still dogs the White House and the State Department. Four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, were killed in the attack. Eight months later, that attack is still being investigated by the FBI and by congressional committees. Hearings by a...

The Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, still dogs the White House and the State Department. Four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, were killed in the attack. Eight months later, that attack is still being investigated by the FBI and by congressional committees. Hearings by a congressional committee last week helped show how facts often get spun in a way that lessens political damage to top-ranking federal officials.

The American people deserve better than that. They deserve a full airing of the facts surrounding this disturbing incident.

The Benghazi attack and the White House response to it have frustrated members of Congress; so last week the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held another hearing on the issue. This time, previously silent witnesses came forth. They shared their frustration, shock and anger at the crudely political way the aftermath of the crisis was handled.

Perhaps most damning of all was the lengthy testimony of Gregory Hicks, the State Department foreign service officer and former deputy chief of mission in Libya when the attack happened.

Hicks, a credible witness, struggled with emotion as he testified. More than any other witness or congressional critic so far, Hicks helped shine a light on why the Benghazi issue matters. It matters because the American people were sold dubious spin, not facts, only days after the attack.

The apparent purpose of this spin was to shield the State Department — in charge of embassy protection — and the Obama administration from criticism. There also may have been some election-related spin going on.

What has long angered critics of the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi matter is that the administration seemed determined to blame the Benghazi attack on an anti-Islamic YouTube video that had ostensibly provoked demonstrators in Cairo, Egypt. Susan Rice, ambassador to the U.N., went on Sunday talk shows after the Sept. 11 attack and blamed the video.

Referring to Rice’s explanation, Hicks was blunt: “I was stunned. My jaw dropped. And I was embarrassed.”

In fact, the attacks were known to have been launched by an al-Qaida-affiliated group, Ansar al-Sharia, and Hicks had told State Department officials that — yet he was ignored.

What appears to have happened after the attack was a concerted effort by State Department officials to spin a story in a way that would lessen the political damage to the Obama administration and cover for officials who did nothing that night.

In an effort to prevent another such debacle, Congress will continue its probe of the administration until all relevant facts are aired. That is as it should be. Families of the dead and the American people deserve nothing less.